Electronic devices for receiving television or other audio-visual media at home have become increasingly complex in recent years in terms of both design and operation. Consequently, television receivers are typically controlled by sophisticated software that manages all aspects of the devices' operation, including providing the functionality needed by users to tune the device to receive broadcasts, to select a channel, and to program the device for later recording. In addition, the software also must provide the underlying functionality required to decode an audio-video signal, present the decoded data via the screen and speakers to a viewer, and, for interactive services, capturing inputs from the user and transmitting these to a broadcaster for processing.
The investment made in a television receiver for the home, both in respect of its development, and the cost to the purchaser, typically means that it has a lifespan of several years, perhaps say between five and ten for example. The lifespan of the operational software, or at least the current version, can be much shorter however, reflecting changes in the broadcast industry standards, additional services that the broadcaster wishes to provide, or the need to add simple updates required to improve performance or security.
It is not uncommon therefore for several versions of software for a set-top-box (STB) to be released during the software lifecycle. Each version must be tested to ensure that it runs without error on each of the STBs in the broadcast network. Since, it is not always known which production version of the software is currently running on a customer's STB, download tests are often performed to verify that each version takes the download, that is, the software version upgrades correctly to the new version of the software, and subsequently operates in the manner expected without error.
Test engineers can verify whether the upgrade has been successful by capturing traces from the STB's serial port, using programs like Microsoft's ° HyperTerminal or TeraTerm from Ayera Technology Inc., which allow an engineer at a remote computer to connect to the STB by modem or Ethernet connection. The engineer must then verify the upgrade by reading the information presented on screen. This can be a time consuming process, and can only be carried out by one engineer operating on one STB at a time.
We have therefore appreciated that there is a need for an improved apparatus for and method of facilitating delivery of operational and control software to distributed electronic devices, such as STBs, and to ensure that the software, once downloaded, has been successfully installed and is capable of operating on the device in a stable manner and without errors.